Well I don’t mean hoarding hand sanitizers, toilet paper, face mask, money,and non-perishable foods to resell for a outrageous profit. Honestly that’s not a business model I’d recommend a empathetic decent founder to play because you or a loved one could easily be on the receiving end. You don’t have to prey on the weak and vulnerable to make life better for your family or run dirty scheme to take from the rich. This is just a great time, in my opinion, to add positive value to your local community, global community, founders community and especially your team mates. A great time to set an example for your kids and your employees. A time to show love. . . well with social distance.
Clearly we all know times like these are either an opportunity or threat to life and business. And what one hopes is we all use these times to love more, serve more, and to grow more positively. The following insights will cover many areas to assist Founders, Entrepreneurs, Freelancers and others to find light in moments of fear.
P. S. As always please feel free to engage us via email, Whatsapp, LinkedIn message, ---in regards to content, connecting, or any other questions. If you’d like to share your content/opinion, please give us a chance to get to know who you are. As you know there are some people who will use platforms for good and for bad.
***if you want or need a business continuity plan tool kit today for free, contact us or simply google it.
THE FEW NEWS TAKING PLACE IN THE BUSINESS WORLD
[“The coronavirus outbreak poses a challenge of unprecedented severity for Amazon—and it’s hardly the only company grappling with a pandemic that has upended the daily lives of people around the world. The company has announced plans to hire 100,000 people and issue temporary raises to help keep groceries and other essentials flowing. It has set up a $25 million relief fund to pay delivery workers for up to two weeks if they get sick with the virus or miss work due to quarantines. Amazon on Tuesday told suppliers that it would stop accepting shipments of non-essential goods in its warehouses, an effort to keep things such as food and cleaning supplies moving through the system."]
["Depending on the role, delivery couriers are exposed more often to diseases or infections over the course of their job than most other job types, according to Department of Labor data tracking worker behavior. If enough Amazon drivers get sick, or simply worry about the risk enough to stay home, the Seattle-based company’s logistics machine could struggle to meet its commitments to shoppers.”]
[“This system is set up to take care of Amazon’s customers. It’s not set up to take care of drivers.”]
[“This crisis is really shining a light on inequality across our nation and economy,” said Liz D, the founder of (Blanked), a retail analytics company. Even as some people gripe about working from home, she said, “a lot of people can’t, and it’s likely they’re a lot more vulnerable in terms of what an economic downtown will do to their ability to feed their family and keep themselves housed.”]
["Many expressed concern about accepting cash and whether fitting rooms were safe and pleaded with Gap, which also owns Banana Republic and Old Navy, to shut stores.]
["The _____ House and the Centers for _______ Control and Prevention are asking Facebook, Google and other tech giants to give them greater access to Americans' smartphone location data in order to help them combat the spread of the coronavirus, according to four people at companies involved in the discussions who are not authorized to speak about them publicly."]
[“Facebook is adding $1,000 to its employees’ next paychecks to deal with the coronavirus fallout. It’s also giving everyone their full bonus for the quarter regardless of their performance.”]
[ “It is in fact unprecedented, the type of growth we’ve seen,” said Noel White, chief executive of Tyson Foods Inc., describing the demand from supermarkets needing to refill shelves. Still, he said, “the food supply is sufficient.]
Clearly the quotes and statements above are examples of indication of a changing world and possibly the emergence of new ways and new issues. So for this brief moment founders, entrepreneurs, NGO, CEOs, CTO, CIO, CMO, Managers, Leaders need to use this to educate and assess business / social / government policies and initiatives.
THANKS! GOD BLESS!
SOME POWERFUL BUSINESS TIPS & THOUGHTS TO HELP THROUGH CRISIS
[Confronting what the “worst-case” might actually mean could take businesses into uncharted, uncomfortable and unprecedented territory, particularly if owners and managers have never weathered a crisis before. “Most businesses don’t plan for anything more than a six percent drop in sales,” says (Blanked). Many businesses will face a much bigger contraction. ]
- l Some will say now is the time to invest not retrench
- l Some will say cut back on discretionary spending
- l Some will say get on with invoicing and contact for faster payments
- l Some will say pay your bills slower
- l Some will say start talking to lenders or investors to discuss additional finance
- l Some will say start communication with suppliers and staff
- l Some will say keep staff safe and learning to maintain social distance
- l Some will say a business should not be hoarding supplies
- l Some will say educating staff on symptoms and strong hygiene practices
- l Some will say a thermometers should be present at the workplace and every public space
- l Some will say your business should run scenario drills more often because of rapid change
- l Some will say working from home can cause mental health issues
- l Some will say carry a face-mask, hand sanitizer and and wash hands frequently
- l Some will say government money will surely be required to ensure that once the worst of the crisis is over, most businesses will have survived.
- l Some will say one location or one platform based businesses are very risky
- l Some will say now’s the time for e-learning to really takeoff
- l Some will say travel and tourism will not recover for months
- l Some will say nations are resilient and will recover
- l Some will say to check up on everyone’s state and family situation
- l Some will say to check on others who need food or other supplies
- l Some will say don’t add to the panic and fear
- l Some will say don’t use Coronavirus in your marketing or exploit it for profit
- l Some will say focus on philanthropic initiatives
- l Some will say ecommerce is going to get a huge boost
- l Some will say think twice about the source of the information you’re consuming
- l Some will say the media will over do it
- l Some will say information does not equal informed
- l Some will say seek the thoughts and opinion from diverse experts
- l Some will say try to see the big picture and the little picture before making decisions
- l Some will say your pace response should equal the pace of the external forces. Urgency outside the walls means urgency inside the walls?
- l Some will say you and others will be exposed to conflicting information so be sure to communicate policies promptly, clearly, and in a balanced manner. Also making sure that everyone truly understands the reasoning
- l Some will say a good employee travel policy will be needed.
- l Some will say a good remote worker policy will be needed
- l Some will say forecasting will be challenging so make frequent reporting possible
- l Some will say if you can be a good cooperate citizen to others the better
- l Some will say engage all issues not as a problem for one department but as the whole organization to come together to solve.
- l Some will say modular way of operating is better
- l Some will say a culture and organization that’s constantly adapting is better
- l Some will say organization that envision and prepare for worst case and best case scenarios are better
- l Some will say organizations who serve their stakeholders not only shareholders are better
- l Some will say start preparing for the next crisis
- l Some will say talking, sketching, or thinking of scenarios to prepare for is not as effective as running close to real scenarios in real environments. It must be rehearsed.
- l Some will say it’s important to reflect on what one has learned or not learned.
- l Some will say it’s an opportune time to prepared for a changed world and to minimize future disruptions
- l Some will say prepare even if it seems too late
- l Some will say expect times and life to be disrupted for a while
- l Some will say get closer to customers without scaring them off like opening more lines of communication or having discussion about their challenges, etc
- l Some will say office space and some other things will get cheaper
- l Some will say you may be able buy and acquire more companies
- l Some will say policymakers need to help deal with the bills and protect against bankruptcies, layoffs, foreclosure, eviction, starvation
- l Some will say the sooner you or your organization owns up to any crisis the less newsworthy it is.
- l Some will say this is the time to see how well you’ll treat your workforce and whether your ethical values are broken
- l Some will say this is the time to re-calibrate or turn off your sales & marketing automation because most people are distracted by more serious matters
- l Some will say if you have a platform to spread positive messages or hope or help others in need this is the time to use it. Don’t use it to spread hate or misinformation. or self promotions
KNOW AND LEARN FROM PAST ECONOMIC DOWNTURNS
***There have been 17 recessions throughout U.S. history including the Great Depression. The following may be 100% accurate in facts or not so I welcome others with historical facts to comment. However, the point of this section is to have founders, entrepreneurs, and anyone take the time to understand how the financial world works. And maybe share their own tips and stories on to handle downturns..
[1797
The Panic of 1797 resulted from land speculation in the newly-formed United States. The bubble burst just as deflation in Europe impacted the rest of the world. Robert Morris, who helped finance the Revolutionary War, ended up in prison for his debts. He was in debt despite owning more land at that time than anyone else in the United States.
1857
The Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company failed. In addition, approximately 5,000 businesses went under during the first year of a panic that lasted about 18 months.
1873
Jay Cooke & Company was the largest U.S. bank when it failed. Subsequent labor issues led to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. The recession lasted more than five years.
1893
The failure of the Reading Railroad was a key component of this recession, which lasted approximately four years.Unemployment topped 12%, by some estimates. Over 500 banks closed.
1907
Congress created the Federal Reserve System in response to the collapse of New York's Knickerbocker Trust Co.The stock market dropped about dramatically during this recession, which lasted about a year.
The Great Depression
Lasting from 1929 until 1938, it was the biggest economic crisis in U.S. history. Unemployment reached 25% in 1933 and remained at 19% in 1938. The Depression ended because of three things: the New Deal, the end of the drought that caused the Dust Bowl, and increased spending for World War II.
1945
This recession lasted eight months, from February to October, although it felt longer to those who endured it.GDP continued falling until it reached -11.6% in 1946. It was a natural result of the demobilization from World War II and the sharp drop in demand for military weapons. Government spending also dropped, although business spending was robust.
1949
This 11-month recession began in November 1948. It lasted until October 1949, when unemployment reached a peak of 7.9%. It was a mild adjustment as the economy continued adapting to peacetime production.
1953
This recession lasted 10 months, from July 1953 to May 1954. It resulted from demobilization following the Korean War. Unemployment didn't reach its peak of 6.1% until September 1954, four months after the recession ended. In 1953, GDP contracted 2.2% in the third quarter and 5.9% in Q4. In 1954, it contracted 1.9% in Q1.
1957
In this recession, which took place from August 1957 to April 1958, GDP fell 4.1% in Q4 1957, then plummeted another 10% in Q1 1958. Unemployment didn't reach its peak of 7.5% until July 1958. The Fed's contractionary monetary policy is considered the cause of this economic slowdown.
1960
Starting in April 1960, this recession lasted 10 months, until February 1961. GDP was -2.1% in Q2 1960, rose 2.0% in Q3, but was -5.0% in Q4. Unemployment reached a peak of 7.1% in May 1961.16 President John F. Kennedy ended the recession with stimulus spending. His opponent, Richard Nixon, said the recession cost him the election. He had been vice president, so voters blamed the Republicans for causing it.
1970
This recession was relatively mild, lasting 11 months—from December 1969 to November 1970.13 GDP was -1.9% in Q4 1969. It was -0.6% in Q1, then rose 0.6% in Q2 and 3.7% in Q3. In Q4, it was -4.2% before rising 11.3% in Q1 1971. Unemployment peaked at 6.1% in December 1970.
1973–1975
First, President Nixon instituted wage-price controls. This kept prices too high, reducing demand. Wage controls made salaries too high and forced businesses to lay off workers. Second, Nixon took the United States off the gold standard in response to a run on the gold held at Fort Knox, which led to inflation. The price of gold skyrocketed to $120 an ounce while the dollar's value plummeted.
The result was stagflation and five quarters of negative GDP growth: 1973 Q3, -2.1%; 1974 Q1, -3.4%; Q3, -3.7%; Q4, -1.5%; and 1975 Q1, -4.8%.14 Unemployment reached a peak of 9% in May 1975, two months after the recession had ended.
1980–1982
The economy suffered a double whammy of two recessions in this period. There was one during the first six months of 1980. The second lasted 16 months, from July 1981 to November 1982.
The Fed caused this recession by raising interest rates to combat inflation.That reduced business spending. The Iranian oil embargo aggravated economic conditions by reducing U.S. oil supplies, which drove up prices.
GDP was negative for six of the 12 quarters. The worst was Q2 1980 at -8.0%.Until the 2008–2009 recession, that was the worst quarterly decline since the Great Depression. Unemployment rose to 10.8% in November and December 1982, the highest level in any modern recession.16 It was above 10% for 10 months. President Reagan lowered the tax rate and boosted the defense budget, helping to end the recession.
1990–1991
This recession ran nine months, from July 1990 to March 1991. The 1989 savings and loan crisis caused it. GDP was -3.6% in Q4 1990 and -1.9% in Q1 1991.14 Unemployment peaked at 7.8% in June 1992.
2001
The 2001 recession lasted eight months, from March to November.13 It was caused by a boom and subsequent bust in dot-com businesses. The boom was partially created by the Y2K scare in 2000. Companies bought billions of dollars’ worth of new software because they were afraid the old systems weren't designed to transition from the 1900s to the 2000s. But many dot-com businesses were significantly overvalued and failed.
The 9/11 attack worsened the recession. The economy contracted in two quarters: Q1, -1.1% and Q3, -1.7%. Unemployment continued rising until it peaked at 6.3% in June 2003.
2008–2009
The Great Recession was the worst financial crisis in the United States since the 1929 Depression. It also was the longest-lasting: from December 2007 to June 2009. The subprime mortgage crisis was the trigger. That created a global bank credit crisis in 2007. By 2008, the credit crisis had spread to the general economy through the widespread use of derivatives.
The economy shrank in five quarters, including four quarters in a row. Two quarters contracted more than 5%. In Q4 2008, GDP was -8.4%, worse than any other recession since the Great Depression. The recession ended in Q3 2009, when GDP turned positive, thanks to an economic stimulus package. ]
LEARN FROM SARS & OTHER OUTBREAKS
***This section is not about me trying to be an expert on health matters or to inform the general public. Please I recommend visiting the WHO (World Health Organiazation) website for official information and education material.There are similar lessons one can take from SARS, the previous economic crisis, and from industry leaders. Hopefully also inspire founders to become problem solvers.
FYI---Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that usually infect animals but can sometimes evolve and spread to humans.
[“Symptoms for people tend to include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, which can progress to pneumonia. Physicians have compared it to the 2003 outbreak of SARS, which had a short incubation period of two to seven days.”]
[“During the period of infection for SARS (2002-2003), there were nearly 8,098 reported cases and 774 deaths, according to the WHO. It means the virus killed roughly one in 10 people who were infected.”]
[“One of the grim lessons from the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa is how an epidemic can grow when it hits countries with weak health infrastructures. This is why the World Health Organization and others have been preparing countries in sub-Saharan Africa for the coronavirus, even though few cases so far have been reported there.”]
LEARN ABOUT CONTINGENCY & CONTINUITY PLANNING
For some of us business owners emergency or crisis is not something we may not be fully prepared for so we all can take a moment to learn.
[“When business is disrupted, it can cost money. Lost revenues plus extra expenses means reduced profits. Insurance does not cover all costs and cannot replace customers that defect to the competition. A business continuity plan to continue business is essential. Development of a business continuity plan includes four steps:
- l Conduct a business impact analysis to identify time-sensitive or critical business functions and processes and the resources that support them.
- l Identify, document, and implement to recover critical business functions and processes.
- l Organize a business continuity team and compile a business continuity plan to manage a business disruption.
- l Conduct training for the business continuity team and testing and exercises to evaluate recovery strategies and the plan.”]
What You May Want To Consider:
- · Impact to Employees and how do you rally together
- · Impact to Office space, furniture and equipment or do we source alternatives
- · Impact to Technology (computers, peripherals, communication equipment, software and data)
- · Impact to Vital records (local electronic, cloud versions and hard copy)
- · Impact to Production facilities, machinery and equipment
- · Impact to Inventory including raw materials, finished goods and goods in production.
- · Impact to Utilities (power, natural gas, water, sewer, telephone, internet, wireless)
- · Impact from Third party services or vendors
- · Impact if there is a government mandated isolation of the public
- · Impact if workers are not able to come to the office
- · Impact if internet is down or access to the cloud is impossible
- · Impact if we are suddenly attacked cyber or offline threats
- · Impact if we can’t coordinate or communicate
The basic idea of contingency and continuous plan is to prepare in advance what to do in case of serious circumstances. So here’s a quick outline. I would recommend you google for a good worksheet or contact us and we could forward a copy.
Sample Outline For Business Continuity Management
Executive Summary
The Professional Practices for Business Continuity Management Objectives
1. Program Initiation and Management
- Establish the need for a business continuity program.
- Obtain support and funding for the business continuity program.
- Build the organizational framework to support the business continuity program.
- Introduce key concepts, such as program management, risk awareness, identification of critical functions/processes, recovery strategies, training and awareness, and exercising/testing.
2. Risk Assessment
- Identify risks that can adversely affect an entity’s resources or image.
- Assess risks to determine the potential impacts to the entity, enabling the entity to determine the most effective use of resources to reduce these potential impacts.
3. Business Impact Analysis
- Identify and prioritize the entity’s functions and processes in order to ascertain which ones will have the greatest impact should they not be available.
- Assess the resources required to support the business impact analysis process.
- Analyze the findings to ascertain any gaps between the entity’s requirements and its ability to deliver those requirements.
4. Business Continuity Strategies
- Select cost-effective strategies to reduce deficiencies as identified during the risk assessment and business impact analysis processes.
5. Incident Response
- Develop and assist with the implementation of an incident management system that defines organizational roles, lines of authority and succession of authority.
- Define requirements to develop and implement the entity’s incident response plan.
- Ensure that incident response is coordinated with outside organizations in a timely and effective manner when appropriate.
6. Plan Development and Implementation
- Document plans to be used during an incident that will enable the entity to continue to function.
7. Awareness and Training Programs
- Establish and maintain training and awareness programs that result in personnel being able to respond to incidents in a calm and efficient manner.
8. Business Continuity Plan Exercise, Assessment, and Maintenance
- Establish an exercise, assessment and maintenance program to maintain a state of readiness.
9. Crisis Communications
- Provide a framework for developing a crisis communications plan.
- Ensure that the crisis communications plan will provide for timely, effective communication with internal and external parties.
10. Coordination with External Agencies
- Establish policies and procedures to coordinate incident response activities with public entities.
INVESTMENT or STARTUP OPPORTUNITIES
The reality is there will be either a minor or significant impact to lives and business. We also know certain goods and services will experience higher demand and there will be some whose demand will dwindle. There’s really so much Governments and the central banks can do. However we can agree you can hoard food, water, money,toilet paper into a panic room or you can choose to find opportunities to serve others and grow in character. After all, this is just a cycle a lot similar to weather.
THE SUN WILL COME OUT TOMORROW!
- l Expect to see more diversity in supply chains
- l Expect to see more A.I in health care
- l Expect to see more use of Bluetooth for social tracking if permitted
- l Expect to see more government apps in smartphones or many devices to engage and monitor citizens if permitted
- l Expect to see health screening related cameras (infrared or Thermography Camara), and devices been place in more public places
- l Expect to see Whatsapp and other messaging app become central hubs or portals. Imagine one app to coordinate your life, employees, business
- l Expect to see more blockchain use in logistics and in managing people in cities
- l Expect to see more need and demand for individual tracking
- l Expect to see the rapid increase in drones, self driving autonomous vehicles to help reduce human-human contact risks.
- l Food delivery, Goods delivery will be done more by autonomous vehicles and robots
- l The rapid urgency to reduce more human repetitive jobs begins and the increase adoption of more work from home technology
- l Expect to see more sensors in buildings, home, public places, etc
- l Expect to see demand for STEM jobs and high skill jobs increase as our world becomes more complex and uncertain
- l Expect to see effort to maintain a national internet network or what I call “Internal National Internet” or INI that enables nations to maintain communication for their nation without threat from the outside, As ioft begins to take off this is going to a subject to consider.
- l Expect to see systems and demand for institutional content makers & content distributors to have license of credibility rating. Just like “SSL” for websites that begin with “https://”.Or like credit ratings which rewards and punishes content makers.
- l Expect to see demand for faster internet. Stable internet, always on, safe internet, infrastructure and systems.
- l Expect to see Streaming media and content producers reinvent their business models drastically as people’s attentions are segmented and more competition.
- · Expect to see more smart devices that are supposedly meant to make life easier
- · Expect to see more use of public and private clouds. And expect to see more attacks.
- · Expect to see cybersecurity, quantum computing, and any advance technology experts to be in great demand
- · Expect to see component makers for the tech sector to be in demand from the consumer goods producers and the commercial side.Plus IofT and autonomous vehicles could create huge component demand.
- Expect to see more interest in the essential sectors as they usually weather through downturns better than others. So as a founder, entrepreneur, investors, aligning your portfolio or ambition to some of these sectors can be good way to manage through tough times.
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